Gigabyte 9800 XT -Vs- ATI 9800XT

[terhi]

Compliments of the season to all...

I intend to purchase a Radeon 9800XP in the very near future.
However, I was told by a friend that the Gigabyte version of this card will not accept standard catalyst drivers, and that for FS2004 I will need to purchase a "made by ATI" card and not a "powered by ATI"

First, is this comment of my friend's true ?

Second, does the card maufacturer actually matter provided the card uses the 9800XP chip? Are there different qualities between the brands?

Third, which brand of RADEON 9800XT-based video card do YOU use and are you happy with it or would you rather have bought a different brand ?

Any comment would be most appreciated.

Dave Britzius
(Cape Town)

[Bigshot]

Look closely at the Sapphire cards. They're very good. You can't go wrong. You can also do a search over at www.rage3d.com . The subject has been discussed at length.

[gary2]

Dave:I have the ATI Radeon 9800XT and have just installed the 3.10 driver. I am still playing around with the many permutations and combinations for settings but am absolutely amazed with it's performance so would highly recommend it.:)Hope your Christmas has been a great one.
Gary

Custom Built
ASUS P4P800-D,Dual 400
Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz
ATI Radeon XT , 256MB
2 X 512MB DDR RAM 400MHz PC3200
Twin 80GB HD in Raid 0 config.
450W PS

[terhi]

Gary,

Is your card the actial "made by ATI" adapter,
or is it a different brand?

Dave Britzius
(Cape Town)

[gary2]

Dave: it is manufactured by ATI technologies.

[ant_1984]

Hi Dave, I'm sorry to say it so bluntly but your friend is wrong about the Gigabyte issue. The drivers will work with out a problem. I'm not using a 9800XT but a 9600Pro made by Gigabyte. Gigabyte is one of the companies certified by ATI aswell as Sapphire which was mentioned in another post. You can see which are certified by looking at this link
http://www.ati.com/products/certified/index.html

Hope this helps,
Anthony Young

[javelin]

Just got the ATI 9800XT, had it for about 5 weeks, and seems to be o.k.
Just upgraded to the 3.10 ATI drivers and it seems to work good.
I had a Sapphire 9700 pro for about a year, before the XT, and it worked real good.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
Cliff

[terhi]

Thankyou Anthony, Gary & Cliff for your comments.
I do indeed see that the Gigabyte card is on the ATI approved list.

I have another allied question which the thread "New 9800 Pro: 1st Questions & 1st Inpressions." has brought up, but for clarity I will start a new thread. Please check it because would really appreciate your comments.

Dave Britzius
(Cape Town)